Encore: Trey Lewis is Thomason — The Truth Behind the White Van
Music Saved Me Podcast
In this encore episode of Music Saved Me, artist Trey Lewis steps forward as Thomason—the name on his birth certificate and the identity behind
Key takeaways
- Thomason's shift from Trey Lewis marks not a reinvention but an arrival at his true identity.
Main topics
- Recovery from addiction
- Grief and fatherhood
Notable quotes
"I'm the last of my bloodline, and it's important to me that I share my story."
Conclusion
Thomason's journey from Trey Lewis to his true name reflects a profound evolution
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) Music Saved Speaker 1 (0:01) Me. I'm Lynn Hoffman. Welcome to the Music Saved Me podcast. I have a question. What if the thing that almost broke you became the thing that defined you? Well, today's guest spent nearly two decades rebuilding his life one road mile at a time. And now, under a new name and with a new sound, he's sharing the most honest music of his entire career. There are artists who make music, and then there are artists whose music makes meaning out of the wreckage. And today's guest is the second kind. You may know him as Trey Lewis, but on this episode of Music Saved Me, we're welcoming him as Thomason. The name on his birth certificate, the name on his new white van EP, and the name he says represents the most soul-bearing work of his life. Nearly 20 years sober, hundreds of small rooms with empty tip jars. a journey shaped by redemption roots and the kind of hard-earned clarity that only comes with time. The White Van EP is four songs, but it carries a lifetime with it. I'm going to quote him, I'm the last of my bloodline, and it's important to me that I share my story. I'm so excited. Trey Lewis, Thomason, will share that story starting next on Music Save Me. Don't go away. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Speaker 4 (1:21) I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 3 (1:52) On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself. because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (2:28) So like by age 11 or so, at least 70 % have a phone. Speaker 8 (2:32) I'm Dr. Joy, and this is Therapy for Black Girls. We spend our surviving middle school run getting into what's happening inside your kid's brain, the group chats, and their friendships, and what you can do about it. Speaker 2 (2:43) Your child is not doing this on purpose. Speaker 8 (2:46) That's the kind of perspective we've been pulling from the psychologists and psychiatrists who study this for a living. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 6 (2:57) Self-care September is your reminder to slow down, check in with yourself, get off your phone, and maybe ask, why am I like this? I'm Gemma Spegg, host of the Psychology of Your 20s podcast, and this month we're helping you make sense of the person that you are becoming, from setting boundaries and navigating friendships, to understanding anxiety, confidence, relationships, and attachment. Sometimes our biggest decisions, without us even realizing it, aren't driven by what we truly want, but by what will prevent us from feeling lonely or being alone. Listen to The Psychology of Your 20s on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you Speaker 7 (3:37) get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (3:39) Our hometown is not a test tube. Speaker 7 (3:42) 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America plays out in one small town. Speaker 2 (3:48) Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill. This is Our Town, Speaker 7 (3:55) a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (4:17) Music saved me. Thomason, welcome to Music Saved Me. It's great to have you on the show. It really is. I mean, I've followed you. Speaker 5 (4:24) Thank Speaker 1 (4:24) you for having me. I'm Speaker 5 (4:25) grateful to Speaker 1 (4:26) be here today. Speaker 5 (4:26) Well, Speaker 1 (4:27) you've been known as Trey Lewis, and you have quite a large fan base with that name, and now you're stepping in to a new role, and it's Thomason, which is your last name, which was your given last name. What does that shift mean to you personally? Speaker 5 (4:43) It's just really cool. I feel like as a creator, it's really given me another... So when I had my big viral moment and everything just kind of went haywire, I signed a publishing deal at Sony Music Publishing. I started to really write songs every day, not just when the inspiration hit. When I first moved into Asheville, I was just meeting people and trying to book my own rights and stuff. But when I signed a piece of paper that was like, hey, you're going to write songs for us for a living, I really started writing every single day and having to force the creativity. Speaker 5 (5:24) In doing that, I wrote a lot of serious songs because you can't just write a funny song every day because you're not in a funny mood every day. And the more and more I wrote songs, I realized, I was like, man, I have like 100 serious songs here in this file. What am I supposed to do with these? I will say, too, it's also become like it's like a... creatively freeing thing because if one day i do want to write a silly song for my trey lewis stuff i can and then if i want to write something serious something that's a little more important to me i can tap into that as well i think that's Speaker 1 (6:02) genius by the way thank Speaker 5 (6:04) you thank you my uh manager it was something the thomason thing is something that i thought about a lot just laying in bed dreaming at night and one morning my manager called me and was like man i was having a conversation with our new distributor today and we were just kind of talking about the different things you do as an artist and um how sometimes it's a little bit of a branding issue and whatnot and he said that they had mentioned it would almost make sense if trey had two different artists pages And then as soon as he said that, I was like, dude, this is something that I've thought about doing a million times. I just didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to like, you know, it's a lot because it is a lot of work. It's double the releases, double the social media posting in a world where everything is like, you know, you're trying to create so much content to like, you know, even just to keep up. Think about doing double is just absolutely crazy. Well, Speaker 1 (7:08) it is 2026, Thomason. We could actually clone you at some point, I'm sure. Right, use an AR Speaker 5 (7:15) here. Speaker 1 (7:16) No, but that's really, really unique and fun. And it is a lot of work, but it's work that you seem to be up to the challenge with. And you've had some obstacles in life to get where you are and to be willing to share the funny side of you, but also the serious side, which is where you're at right now, really. putting it all out there. Your last album, you did that with sort of, it was sort of the in-between moments. But is this sort of a reinvention or is it more like arriving at who you were supposed to always be? Speaker 5 (7:46) I think it's more of arriving of where I was always supposed to be. I feel like before I had, you know, even as Trey Lewis, before I had a song of viral, the kind of music that I'm putting out with Thomason right now is kind of the music that I was doing before that happened. It was a hell of a detour, you know? Yeah. And it was fun and I had a great time. But I feel like now I'm just kind of like getting back to more of who I was. And I would say the hard, you know, the hardworking middle class musician, you know, like that kind of type of stuff. Speaker 1 (8:21) Absolutely. Well, I mean, when you're doing things that are authentic to who you are, it should be easy. It should flow. Speaker 1 (8:30) It sounds like it has been so far for you. I mean, you've described this work sort of as your most proud work to date, and that's a big statement, especially for someone with your catalog, which I definitely want to get into. What makes White Van feel different this time before everything that came before it? Speaker 5 (8:47) Well, I had put two singles out before White Van, a song called Lucky One that I wrote about my best friend Tripp that passed away when I was about three years sober. And then I put out another song called AA, which is a song about how I got sober. So I feel like those two songs were kind of like the introduction. And then the EP is kind of like, okay, I'm here. Here's four songs that say what this whole deal is about. But I just feel like it's just ideas or songs that some of them are very old. Some